Easter Story Cookies

Kaylee's blog post reminded me of these cookies we made one Easter in Newport.

Easter Story Cookies

These cookies should be made the evening before Easter. They can be very helpful in teaching children the reason for celebrating Easter.

Ingredients needed are:
1 cup whole pecans
3 T. vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
zipper baggy
wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important - don't wait until you're halfway done with the recipe.)

Place pecans in zipper baggy and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put vinegar into a mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19: 28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave his life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sins. Read Luke 23:27.

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add sugar and explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us and died for our sins. He wants us to know and belong to him. Read Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Esplain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape to seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20-22.

On Easter morning, open the oen and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookie is hollow!

On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

He lives and so can we. Read John 14:19.


Have a wonderful Easter remembering the atoning sacrifice that Jesus gave to us.

One of many projects!

I have several long term projects that I am working on. Today I will show you one of them and then hopefully every couple of days I'll post about the others.

You know my good friend in O'Fallon, Christine, has a quilt shop in her basement. I miss being able to go over and getting just what I need whenever I wanted. She sells most of her fabrics online, so I look at her website ( http://www.aroundtheblockquiltersshop.com/ ) and wish and dream. Well, in Jan. she joined in with the Riley Blake Mystery Block of the Month. Riley Blake is a fabric designer. They have tutorials on how to make each of their monthly blocks on their website. I had seen the info about the block of the month, but hadn't decided to sew along until I saw it on Christine's page. She has a pinterest page. So I am on pinterest without even having a page myself. I'm afraid of the time suck of it all. Here are my blocks:

January-- a simple HST chevron. (ps. I am not using Riley Blake fabric. Don't tell)

February -- my first attempt at paper piecing. It was very hard for me. Frustrating.

March-- another simple block. It is called Churn Dash. Riley Blake named theirs Simplicity.

Sorry, my pictures seem really dark. They will have 9 blocks altogether. They are 12 inch blocks. I am using the black print as my unifying fabric. You might recognize it from the quilt I made Izzy and MJ for the Christmas before last. Hopefully I will have enough. The other fabrics are just scraps from my stash. And I'm using a white Kona solid as my background fabric.

Enjoy your day. It is spring break here, but it snowed again yesterday and it might get up in the 50's by the end of the week. I am ready for some warmth. I'll be back soon with another project.

Snow Day????

This is what we woke up to this morning. It is taken from our back door. It was all gone by this evening. It turned into rain for most of the day.

Ethan was happy that school was cancelled and he got to play video games half the day.

What have I been up to? What are you up to?

This is what I've been working on:

This is a table mat. I did hour glass blocks of all fruit and veggies prints. It is for a craft giveaway for commenters on our RS blog.

These are a set of coasters. Really simple to make.

This is a tote bag I made. I found the patterns for 2 -9" blocks that I likes. I put them together and used them for the front and back of the bag. The bottom and handles are a heavy flannel like canvas. So it will be heavy duty. I made it to use to take books and things to church. I had a blue and yellow one I made a while back but it was to big. This one is perfect, about 11 x 13.

The other side. Which one do you like?

I even made a pocket in the lining.

This is a block I finished this morning. It is 12 1/2 x 12 1/2. It is a Mystery Block of the Month by Riley Blake fabrics. Christine is featuring it on her shops website, so I thought I'd play along.

That's what I've been up to. What are you up to?

More random stuff

Ethan had some friends over for a nerf war today. I usually try to stay out of the way and this is what I found when I finally heard the cease fire.

Bullets everywhere. I bet we'll be finding them for weeks.

This is the start of the family wall of pictures. I need a picture of Izzy and MJ, an up to date picture of Megan's kids, a recent picture of Ethan and one of Dave and I, too. I will get a new pic of Melanie with Jared on the wedding day. I have others that haven't gotten up yet. It is going to grow from here. This is in the dining room to the left as you come in the front door. Rachelle helped me put these up while she was here. I need more help, so come visit.

We celebrated Jacob's birthday before they left.

One last jump on Grandpop's lap.

Today I am rearranging and going through lots of stuff in my sewing room. Maybe I'll show you pics when I get done. I started a new project, too. I'll be back soon to explain.

Have a wonderful day.

Random stuff

Hi everyone. I wanted to show you the quilt I made for Matt. He didn't get it on Christmas, but I finally got it to him a couple of weeks late.

 It is a block that is named snail's tail. I started these blocks along time ago. I cut out all the black and gray patterned fabric and some of the gray solid. I didn't have enough solid gray so I stopped making them, because I couldn't match the solid. So it sat. Then I was trying to decide what to make for Matt and found these blocks again.  I decided not to worry about matching and finished as many blocks as I could. I used up every bit of patterned fabric that I could to make this many blocks. I didn't think it was long enough, so I made the checkerboard borders to lengthen it. It is still only a lap quilt for Matt!! Ha Ha.

 This is the back. And then a close up of my straight line quilting. I am already getting tired of only straight line quilting. I think I will experiment next time with some gentle curves.

And here is a picture of my dad with his quilt.

 These are some pictures of when Rachelle, Jackson and Jacob were here. They got to open a present.

 Dave and I opening our wonderful picture of all our grandkids together even though they weren't ever together.

And Rachelle reading the first book with Curious George in it to Jax and Jake. (you know what a fan Dave is of Curious George.)  I'm glad they got to visit. I wish more of you could come visit.

And here is Ethan's haircut. He took a picture of Brandon Flowers of the Killers as an example. So that is all the randomness for today. My new projects coming soon.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy New Year

I wanted to show you the quilt that I made for my dad for his birthday/ Christmas present.

 It is a Soduko quilt. 9 fabrics, no repeats in a horizontal row, vertical row or the box.

 This is the back.

I quilted it with my machine in straight horizontal lines about 1 1/2 inches apart. It took along time. It is the perfect size for a throw on the recliner.

Enjoy your year!